Kai Tak: the Checkerboard Approach over Hong Kong and its spotter history

A jumbo in a steep bank, the wingtip seemingly between clotheslines and air conditioners, with the traffic of Kowloon below: hardly any airport shot has burned itself so deeply into the memory of aviation fans as the approach to Kai Tak. Until 1998, the big jets landed in Hong Kong in the middle of the city, and on the main approach direction they had to fly a sharp right turn just before touchdown. This article explains how the famous Checkerboard Approach worked technically, why it was so demanding, what it meant for spotters – and what you can still find of it in Hong Kong today.

Kai Tak in brief

Kai Tak was Hong Kong’s airport from 1925 to 1998. It lay on the north shore of Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, squeezed between densely built residential districts and a chain of mountains to the north. The only runway of the late years, runway 13/31, jutted out into Kowloon Bay as a reclaimed causeway. Anyone landing on runway 13 approached from the west over the city and had to turn right onto the runway at low altitude. This very turn made Kai Tak famous. A detailed chronicle of the airport with terminal, airlines and traffic figures can be found in the article Kai Tak in Hong Kong and in the profile Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. This article is about the approach and about the people who captured it with their cameras.

A runway in the harbor

The runway that spotters associate with Kai Tak did not exist from the start. In the early decades, the airport had short runways on the mainland. Only in 1958 did the new runway 13/31, built into the water, open, considerably longer than anything before. With the arrival of widebody aircraft, it was extended further: in the mid-1970s, it reached its final length of 3,390 meters. From the turn of the year 1975/76, it was available at full length.

The location had two sides. To the southeast, the runway opened toward the harbor and the Lei Yue Mun strait, and to the northwest lay Kowloon City and, behind it, the mountains of the New Territories. A straight approach from the northwest to runway 13 was simply not possible because of these obstacles. The planners had to find a detour – and it led over the rooftops of the city.

How the IGS approach to runway 13 worked

In 1974, an Instrument Guidance System (IGS) was installed for runway 13. It worked similarly to an ILS, with a localizer and glide slope transmitter, but the beam did not point along the runway; it was offset from it by about 47 degrees. How a normal ILS approach is set up is explained in our basics article; at Kai Tak, though, the instrument guidance ended considerably earlier.

The procedure can be divided into three phases:

The exact altitudes for the start and end of the turn vary depending on the source, type and airline. Some reports cite about 650 feet for the start of the turn, others lower values. What all agree on: the last course correction happened as low and as late as is no longer customary at any major international airport today. Because the final approach was not instrument-guided, landings in very poor visibility were also not possible on runway 13.

Why the approach was so feared

The Checkerboard Approach demanded more of crews than routine. Several factors came together:

• Little margin: The turn had to be flown cleanly at low altitude. Anyone who turned too early or too late was not on the runway centerline and had hardly any time to correct.
• Crosswind and gusts: Hong Kong lies in a typhoon region, and wind from the mountains often made the final phase turbulent. What crosswind on final approach means technically is covered in the article Crosswind landings.
• Visual orientation: Crews had to bring beam, checkerboard and the runway approach lighting into agreement – above a city whose lights were a distraction of their own at night.
• Go-arounds with obstacles: The missed approach also had to take into account the mountains around Kowloon.

Many airlines therefore trained their crews specifically for Kai Tak. For pilots, landing on runway 13 was considered one of the most demanding in scheduled service worldwide – an assessment found in countless recollections of captains.

The other direction: runway 31

Less famous but also special was operation in the opposite direction. Landings on runway 31 came from the southeast over the water and could be flown with ILS; the approach passed close to the Heng Fa Chuen housing estate on Hong Kong Island. Aircraft departing on 31 had to fly a left turn of about 65 degrees shortly after liftoff to avoid the mountains to the north. Which direction is in use always depends on the wind – the principle is explained in the guide Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport.

Checkerboard Hill

The checkerboard that gave the approach its name sits on a roughly 98-meter hill in northern Kowloon, next to Kowloon Tsai Park and not far from Lion Rock Country Park. Locally, it is also called Kowloon Tsai Hill. The originally red and white pattern was a visual marker for crews at the end of the instrument-guided section: when the checkerboard came into view, the turn was near.

After the airport closed, the pattern lost its function. The paint faded and plants overgrew the slope. In 2020 and 2021, the west and south sides were restored and repainted in the original colors. Since then, the hill has been a memorial to Kai Tak and a popular destination for aviation fans following the trail of the approach. The nearest MTR station is Lok Fu.

Spotting at Kai Tak: jets above the rooftops

For plane spotters, Kai Tak was a place where the usual rules of aircraft photography were turned upside down. Normally, you photograph landings from the approach path or at the edge of the runway, with lots of sky and maybe some grass in the frame. At Kai Tak, the aircraft came in banking over a sea of houses. High-rises, neon signs and street canyons became part of the shot.

The best-known pictures were taken in Kowloon City, where aircraft in the turn passed especially low over the apartment blocks. Strict height restrictions applied to buildings in the area because of the airport, and they were lifted only after the closure. Photographers used streets, public squares and elevated vantage points to capture jets between the facades. Many of the pictures regarded as Kai Tak classics today show exactly this combination: a widebody jet banked over, with the everyday life of the city below.

On top of that came the enormous variety. In the 1990s, Kai Tak was one of the busiest international airports in the world, with a focus on long-haul and cargo. The terminal was actually too small for the passenger numbers reached at the end, and a night curfew applied. In return, widebody jets from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia landed in dense succession during the day. On runway 13, almost every one of these aircraft came through the famous turn.

The fleets in the sky over Kowloon

The home airline was Cathay Pacific, which used Kai Tak as its hub until the closure in 1998. Dragonair and Air Hong Kong were also based here. The picture was dominated mainly by four-engine widebody jets: the Boeing 747 in various generations was omnipresent, along with trijets and early long-haul twins. If you want to tell the jumbo variants of the time apart, you will find the features in the article Recognizing the Boeing 747-100 to 747-8. Singapore Airlines is also among the carriers whose 747-400s can be seen in the turn at Checkerboard Hill in historical photos.

Feature	Runway 13 (Checkerboard)	Runway 31
Approach comes from	west, over Kowloon	southeast, over the water
Guidance on final	IGS up to the turn, then by sight	ILS
Special feature	right turn of about 47 degrees at low altitude	approach near Heng Fa Chuen; takeoffs with a left turn of about 65 degrees
For spotters	jets in a bank over houses	approaches over the harbor
Bad weather	no landings in very poor visibility	instrument-guided down to the runway

Typhoon Ira and China Airlines 605

As spectacular as the approach looked, it had its risks. The best-known incident happened on November 4, 1993. A Boeing 747-409 of China Airlines, only a few months old, with the registration B-165, flew as CI605 from Taipei to Hong Kong and landed via the IGS approach on runway 13. Typhoon Ira brought strong, gusty crosswinds. The aircraft touched down far beyond the threshold and at high speed, overran the end of the runway, spun around and came to rest in the shallow water of the harbor.

All 296 people on board survived, with a few minor injuries. For Boeing, it was the first hull loss of a 747-400. The vertical stabilizer stuck out of the water and disturbed the ILS signals for runway 31 – it was blown up shortly after the accident. The investigation saw the causes mainly in the crew not going around despite strong speed fluctuations and warnings. What spotters should keep in mind in storms and crosswinds to stay safe themselves is described in the article Filming crosswind landings and storms.

The last night

By the end of the 1990s, Kai Tak had reached its capacity limit. At Chek Lap Kok, off the north coast of Lantau Island, about 30 kilometers farther west, a completely new airport was built on reclaimed land, far from residential areas and without the constraints of the Kowloon mountains. The move happened in one step: in the night of July 5 to 6, 1998, the last scheduled arrival landed late in the evening, and shortly after midnight the last scheduled flight departed, a Cathay Pacific aircraft to London. After that, vehicles and equipment were brought to the new site in one big operation, and on the morning of July 6, Chek Lap Kok began operating.

For many Hong Kongers and for aviation fans worldwide, that was an emotional moment. With the move, not only an airport disappeared, but also an approach procedure and a photo subject that could not be repeated anywhere else. How the hobby has developed over the decades and what role such cult places played in it is covered in the article on the history of plane spotting.

What remains of the old airport today

Anyone who goes to Kai Tak today finds an urban development area. At the tip of the former runway, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal has stood since 2013. Since 2021, parts of the former runway and apron have been home to the Kai Tak Sky Garden, a public park. Very close by, the Kai Tak Sports Park with a large stadium opened in 2025, and since 2020 the MTR has had its own Kai Tak station. The building height restrictions in Kowloon City are gone, and the skyline has changed.

What remains: the shape of the peninsula on which the runway lay, and the restored checkerboard on the hillside. Together, they make a worthwhile walk for anyone who wants to trace the history on site – with no aircraft noise at all.

Spotting in Hong Kong today

Air traffic has taken place at Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport since 1998. Cathay Pacific and the companies of the Cathay Group still dominate there, along with HK Express, Hong Kong Airlines, numerous international airlines and a lot of cargo traffic. Which viewpoints around Lantau work and how to get there is covered in the guide Plane spotting in Hong Kong.

There is no replacement for the Checkerboard Approach. If you are looking for spectacular low passes, you will find them today in other places, such as Maho Beach on Sint Maarten or the runway end at Skiathos. The bucket list of spotting spots worldwide collects more cult spots around the globe. Under approach paths, always keep your distance and respect barriers – more on that in the article Spotting under the approach path.

Conclusion

Kai Tak combined difficult topography with one of the busiest airports in the world. The result was an approach that challenged pilots and gave spotters pictures that will never exist like this again: widebody jets that went into a deep right turn over Kowloon City and lined up with the runway in the bay only seconds before touchdown. Since 1998, that has been history. The restored checkerboard on the hillside and the built-over former runway keep the memory alive – and anyone traveling to Hong Kong today can experience past and present in one day.